SUBIC ICT CONGRESS STARTS TODAY

The first Subic ICT Congress will start 9am today with the ceremonial ribbon cutting by Mayor James Gordon of Olongapo City and SBMA Chairman Salonga, this will be followed by Fr. Mozo blessing the exhibitor's booths and the venue of the event.

The two day event will be held at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center.

The 1st Subic Bay Information Communications Technology (ICT) Congress was borne out of a need to bring together the significant stakeholders in the ICT industry for the purpose of creating a technologically-advanced gateway for trade and an information and communication technology hub for business exchange.

It also aims to showcase the Subic Bay Freeport, recently acknowledged as one of the emerging ICT hubs in the country, as the premier ICT investment destination and global outsourcing center. It will also present ICT opportunities to local government units (LGUs) and empower them to create their own revenue stream through this progressive industry. The event with the theme “SUBICTECH: e-NNOVATING BUSINESS & GOVERNANCE” will focus on this fast-paced field and its sub-industries such as the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and the more universal Knowledge Process Outsourcing which are prime propellants of the nation’s economy. It will also highlight the vast potential of the Subic Freeport as a vital frontier for innovation, service outsourcing and ICT investment promotion.

The congress will take place on November 27 to 29, 2008 and will feature top executives from the country’s leading BPO/KPO firms, vendors, suppliers and the various stakeholders as resource speakers for the plenary sessions which will be held at the modern Subic Bay Freeport Trade and Exhibition Center. A three-day exhibition and trade fair will run concurrently with a series of related meetings and plenary activities and will also highlight a job fair for the ICT and ICT-enabled industries.

BOZE DO-IT Chairman Jay Pena Son and officers of the organization will be inducted during the event. For more information, please visit http://www.ictsubic.com/

Meanwhile....
National ICT conference formed
by Coun. J. Batapa-Sigue

Iligan City - Information and communications technology (ICT) councils, organizations and federations recently agreed to solidify their support and initiatives for the success of the ICT and outsourcing industry of the Philippines.

Ten major groups representing various cities and provinces all over the country trooped to Iligan City for the first ever National Summit of ICT councils on November 25-26 hosted by Iligan Information and Communications Technology Council (IICTC) and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).

The newly-formed National ICT Conference of the Philippines (NICP) was conceptualized by IICTC, Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for ICT (BNEFIT), Inc., Metro Clark ICT Council, Quezon City ICT Council, Albay ICT Association (AICTA), Iloilo Federation for IT (IFIT), Cebu Educational Development Foundation for IT (CEDFIT), Cagayan de Oro ICT Council, ICT Davao, Inc., and ICT Solutions Association of Region 12-General Santos City (ISA12GENSAN).

CICT Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim challenged the local stakeholders to concentrate on the areas of human resource development, business environment and public-private sector partnerships to help achieve the national goal of generating one million jobs and USD13 billion revenues in the IT-BPO sector by 2010.

Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz and IICTC Chair Emmanuel Lagare welcomed the participants to the 2-day event aimed at bringing together the organized ICT Councils and ICT stakeholders and players to strengthen networking, coordination and camaraderie among them.

The theme of the Summit is: "Advancing Philippine IT-BPO Competitiveness: Networking of Local ICT Players for the National Effort."

The NICP believes that with the guidance of CICT, the local government units can contribute directly to the unified vision of the national government in providing investment and employment for the people.

A technical working group composed of Lagare, Bacolod Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, BNEFIT chair, and Bonifacio Belen, Executive Director of CEDFIT, was created to formulate the working policies and objectives of the group subject to approval of all its members. Aside from those present in the summit, the CICT identified other councils such as Dagupan ICT Council, Urdaneta City Council for ICT (UCC-ICT), Cagayan Development Foundation for IT (CADFIT), Olongapo Zambales Subic Educational Development Organization for IT, Laguna Industry Network for Knowledge, Innovation and Technology (LINK-IT), Bohol ICT Council and Technology of Information and Communications in Koronadal (TICK).

The participants were able to share their strategies in their localities, understand the constraints and success factors of other locations, and learn from each others experiences. The NICP agreed to hold its next year's summit in Clark-Subic Corridor and Bacolod-Iloilo Cyber Region in 2010. (PIA Negros Oc)